The development of additive manufacturing, also known in the art as “3D printing,” can reduce manufacturing costs by allowing components to be formed more quickly, with unit-to-unit variations as appropriate, through direct application of computer-generated models and with less expensive equipment and/or raw materials. Additive manufacturing can include producing a component through layering of material rather than the removal of material. Additive manufacturing can allow a component to be formed from a reserve of fine metal powder positioned on a build plate, which is processed by an electron beam or laser (e.g., using heat treatments such as sintering) to form a component or sub-component. Additive manufacturing equipment can also form components by using three-dimensional models generated with software included within and/or external to the manufacturing equipment. Some devices fabricated via additive manufacture can be formed initially as several distinct components at respective processing stages before being assembled in a subsequent process.
Direct Metal Laser Melting (DMLM) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) are additive manufacturing technologies capable of being used to build parts with complex geometries, e.g., airfoil components for installation in a turbomachine such as an aircraft engine or power generation system, however without requiring the tooling techniques common with non-additive manufacturing techniques. DMLM frequently uses 3D CAD data in a digital format combined with an energy source, typically a high-power laser in order to create three-dimensional metal or alloy parts by fusing together particles of metallic powders or powders of alloys.
Conventional additive manufacturing systems build these components on large, solid, build plates. These conventional build plates are often made of two inches of solid metal, for example, stainless steel. Aside from being heavy, cumbersome and expensive to initially manufacture, additional costs are typically associated with the use of conventional build plates by the additive manufacturing systems. For example, after a component is built on and removed from the conventional build plate, the build plate must undergo additional processing. Specifically, the build plate may be machined (e.g., resurfaced, planed, milled and the like) before being utilized again by the additive manufacturing system to build another component. The required machining after every component build is expensive and typically requires the build plate to be sent away, which can affect the production time of components when only one or few build plates are accessible to be used by the additive manufacturing system. Additionally, every time the build plate is machined, the operational life of the build plate is decreased, and the build plate will eventually need to be replaced.
Further, conventional build plates include raised partitions to divvy the build plate area for multiple material powders and may include integrated leaf spring systems to engagement with a retainer plate. Where multiple components are manufactured on a single build plate according to one of these configurations, it becomes difficult to access an individual component, for example, if that component is in the center of the build plate.